Sunday, December 28, 2008

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I'm working on New Year's resolutions, and I think one of them will be to make sure I blog at least once a week! I've been a bad blogger! LOL!

I love receiving hand-made Christmas cards, and this year, I received quite a few gorgeous creations! Here are a few that I thought I'd share with all of you. You can check them out individually in the slide show.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

For our Stamp Club meeting tonight, we will be making these Christmas-themed cards.

This one uses the Magic Snowflake technique. I stamped the snowflakes from the Holiday Collection stamp set in VersaMark on glossy white cardstock and embossed them with white embossing powder. Then I used Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue reinkers to dab ink all over the paper. The card base is Pacific Point, with Brushed Silver cardstock for the accent colour. I finished the card off with some Whisper White taffeta ribbon.The second project is a gift card holder. I found an amazing video tutorial here at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts. I used Riding Hood Red (my new favourite colour!) as the base and layered on some Ski Slope dsp. The snowflake is from Snow Swirled, stamped in RHR. I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter with my two-way glue pen. The band is Baja Breeze, layered with another snowflake that is punched from my 1 1/4" circle punch.

I CASEd the final card from one that my upline, Winona, made. I wanted to use my felt flurries and my new candy cane ribbon, so I built the card around those things! The base is Riding Hood Red with a layer of Chocolate Chip wrapped with ribbon. I used the Top Notes Bigz die to make the next layer in Kraft cardstock. I stamped the greeting from Heard from the Heart in Chocolate Chip. For the tag, I used Take Three and the snowflake from Best Wishes & More. The felt flurry is attached with a gold brad.I look forward to seeing my Stamp Club ladies tonight!

Monday, November 24, 2008

It's my niece, Heather's, fifth birthday today, and this is the card I made for her. She is a special little princess who loves girly things (especially since she is surrounded by boys - a brother and four boy cousins!), and she's even getting into stamping with her mom (YAY!)! In fact, grandma gave her a whole bunch of Stampin' Up! stuff for her birthday!

I used Pink Pirouette as the base for this card, and I layered some Bella Rose designer paper on it. Then I added circles of Pretty in Pink and Whisper White. I stamped the cupcake from Party Hearty in Creamy Caramel on the white circle. I then stamped the cupcake top on a scrap of white in Pixie Pink craft ink, added some heat & stick powder and then added some pink chunky glitter. I cut that out and added it to the cupcake with a dimensional. Some Whisper White taffeta ribbon finished it off!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I included a challenge in my October e-newsletter for my subscribers, which was to come up with a card using Splitcoast's Sketch Challenge 188. The winner for October's challenge was Margaret! She wins an assortment of Stampin' Up! 6 x 6" designer series paper and her card posted on my blog. Isn't this a gorgeous acetate card? I just love the patterns and colours! Congratulations, Margaret! My November challenge will be in this month's newsletter (if you'd like to subscribe, click on the link to the right, under "Stampin' Up! Stuff").

Sunday, November 16, 2008

For Scrapbook Club on Tuesday, we will be doing a Vintage layout using the Bella Rose designer series paper. I also added some Fire Circle Rhinestone brads, some Whisper White taffeta ribbon, a Pretties flower and a Hidden Garden Rub-On (since Rub-Ons are on special this month!). I also stamped the matching flowers from Eastern Blooms in Chocolate Chip ink on the journaling piece. We will be stamping the title with Lovely Letters.

Friday, November 14, 2008

This is the birthday card I made for my MIL, Margo. I was inspired by the wrapping paper! I used Poppin' Pastels technique for this one - I stamped all the flowers from Best Wishes & More in VersaMark, then used my sponge daubers to dab Stampin' Pastels all over them (Tempting Turquoise, Pixie Pink, Yoyo Yellow, Lovely Lilac, Gorgeous Green). For the main flower, I used rock 'n' roll technique in Yoyo Yellow and Pixie Pink, then punched it out with the new 1 3/4" circle punch and adhered it to a large metal edge tag circle. For the center, I stamped the flower again in Pixie Pink, punched out the center with my 3/4" circle punch and glued it into the middle.

On Remembrance Day, we had our first snowfall of the year, so the boys were out in the morning playing as much as they could! It was all gone by the afternoon, but they enjoyed it while it lasted! Here are a few photos:

Thursday, November 13, 2008

This is a Halloween RAK that I received from Shannon, a fellow Canadian! I'm always complaining about how slow mail service is from Canada Post! This card arrived this week, even though it was sent before Halloween!

Anyway, I think it's just an adorable card! Thank you so much, Shannon! I love the cute little frog! You're awesome!

Monday, November 10, 2008

I really wanted to use the Home for Christmas set for a stamp-a-stack, but it takes so much colouring, that I thought it would take too much time to do it, especially making more than one. The solution: Poppin' Pastels!

I stamped the image in VersaMark on Very Vanilla cardstock, and then I used my sponge daubers to dab my Stampin' Pastels over the image (I used Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy and Close to Cocoa). To finish, I sponged some Close to Cocoa ink around the edges of the vanilla cardstock and matted the image on Always Artichoke. I tied some Artichoke ribbon around the accent layer and adhered everything to the Bravo Burgundy card base.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Well, the busy season for card making is upon us! I have tons of stamp-a-stacks that I'm planning for, so I thought I'd take a little break and share some of the cards I've been working on for those.

For this snowflake card, I wanted something simple but pretty, so I hope this works! It also gives everyone a chance to use the Big Shot! It's Night of Navy cardstock, stamped all over with the little snowflake in Snow Swirled in Whisper White craft ink. Then I added the big snowflake die in Whisper White (I sponged some Bashful Blue and Perfect Plum ink on it to give it a bit of texture). I tied some silver elastic cord around it and added a white 1 1/4" circle tag, stamped with the snowflake from Season of Joy in Night of Navy.

And as luck would have it, the Stamp Something challenge this week was to create a card using only one layer of cardstock, so I am going to submit this for that challenge as well!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Well, I've had strep throat for about a week now, so I'm scrambling to get ready for my annual Christmas Extravaganza Open House on Saturday. I am so excited about this event! I've invited several of my friends who are consultants with different direct sales companies to come to my house, and we all get a table to display our products. Then we all invite our friends, customers, families, neighbours - everyone! - to come for one-stop shopping! There will be representatives from Stampin' Up! (of course!), Epicure Selections, Tupperware, Home Interiors, Fifth Avenue Jewelry, Arbonne, Discovery Toys, Pampered Chef, Norwex and Avon. We have a big door prize draw that has products from all of the companies, so for every $50 a guest spends, she gets an entry.

Here is something I've been working on for my Stampin' Up! table. They are tins with note cards that I think would be great teacher gifts!For the cards, I just used the Note Cards that come in a pack of 20. I added some designer paper and stamping accents to those. Each tin has 8 cards and envelopes (I would have put in more, but they barely close with the 8!). I also included a gift card with each tin. I made Christmas and apple themed tins, using the I Wish Scrappin' Kit and Summer Picnic papers.

Thanks for reading, and if you're in my area, make sure you stop by on Saturday! (Just email me for the address.)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

My mom called me the other day and asked if I would make a clear envelope brag book (click on the link for a tutorial) for my step-dad's mom's 80th birthday. They bought her opals as a gift, and my mom has found all kinds of information about them that she thought would be cute presented in a little album of sorts along with the opals.

So I went online, did a google search and found a picture of opals from the website All About Opals (oddly enough!), and I printed it on some Whisper White cardstock. I chose Tempting Turquoise and Brushed Silver as complementary colours to the photo.

For the cover, I stamped "Opals" with Lovely Letters and embossed it in silver on some vellum paper, then attached it over the image with silver eyelets. I matted this on turquoise and adhered the whole thing to the silver cover. For the edge, I put in more silver eyelets and threaded Whisper White taffeta ribbon and silver elastic cord through it.

Monday, October 20, 2008

I've been planning some Christmas projects lately, and I bought a whole bunch of Christmas ornaments to decorate. Then I had to figure out how to decorate them! Well, Amy has an amazing tutorial for making glittery Christmas ornaments. I just had to try them! We'll be making this at my downline meeting on Wednesday, and I'm thinking that this will be one of my Christmas classes.

They do use a lot of glitter, so I'll be ordering tons of that! I did mine a little differently than Amy. I used a little spray bottle to spray some water into the ornament first, then added about eight drops of reinker (Bravo Burgundy and Mellow Moss). I swished the water around and drained it, then added the Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I tied some Whisper White taffeta ribbon around the top and added some silver cord to hang them with.

I'm just loving these! I think there will be a whole bunch on my tree this year!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

This is a baby card I made, CASEing a card that my adopted upline, Winona, made at our last meeting (she made a cupcake birthday card, and I changed it into a baby card).

The stamped images are from Nursery Necessities. I stamped the moon with Green Galore craft ink and added the Celery Chunky Glitter with heat and stick powder before cutting it out and adhering it to the card with dimensionals. For the sentiment, I stamped the words in Certainly Celery on Whisper White, then punched it out with the Word Window punch and layered it on a Barely Banana large oval and Certainly Celery small oval.

The "bubble" images around the card base are stamped from Life's a Breeze.

Friday, October 17, 2008

As soon as I saw this stamp set in the Holiday Mini Catalogue, I knew I had to have it! It reminds me of the Thomas Kincaid paintings.

I embossed the image in black before colouring it in. I've found it makes a crisper image, and the lines don't fade or run as you colour.

I used my AquaPainter to colour it in with Sahara Sand and Really Rust (stones), Glorious Green and Real Red (garland and wreath), Close to Cocoa (door, sled and skis) and Bashful Blue (snow). There's also a little More Mustard in the lamp.

I've found it works for me to paint the lighter colour first over the whole part (I painted Sahara Sand over the entire stone wall), and then highlight with the darker colour (Really Rust at the bottoms of the stones).

To finish, I matted the picture on Glorious Green and Riding Hood Red. The ribbon is Riding Hood Red double-striped grosgrain.

Monday, October 13, 2008

The flu has hit our house full force this week! DH, DS and I have all been sick this week. Thankfully, my oldest son did not get it yet (fingers crossed!). We are planning to get our flu shots next week when they are available, so hopefully we won't get any of the other strains that are out there.

Anyway, I know you're waiting to hear who the winner of the blog candy is. Thank you to all of you who visited and commented. It was nice to read about your favourite Halloween memories. Random.org chose #5: Kathy Brown! Here's Kathy's memory:

I remember all the hussle and bussle of us 5 kids getting into our outfits for Halloween, piling into the family station wagon and being dropped off at the end of the street with Mom,and Dad would drive to the other end of the street and wait for us to go from door to door gathering up loads of candy then going to the next steet, etc. That was when Halloween was about treating and not so much tricking. Candy was safe to eat, alto our candy was still looked over, and kids were safe. Oh how times have changed. Thanks for the chance for some fun blog candy!!

Kathy BrownEmail me with your mailing address, Kathy, and I'll get this out to you ASAP!

Friday, October 10, 2008

When I saw these tag punch flowers in this month's Stampin' Success magazine, I knew I had to make them. Yes, I'm a chronic CASEr. I even copied the cards from the magazine (I did change the colours, though!)

To make the flowers, use the small tag punch to punch eight tags out of designer series paper (Bella Rose and Summer Picnic here). Fold them in half vertically, then fold the top half back from the bottom-left corner to the top of the vertical fold on a diagonal. There is a 1 3/8" circle as the base, to which I adhered the "petals". Then punch a 1 3/8" circle out of textured cardstock (Riding Hood Red and Bashful Blue) to cover the center of the flower.

The flower image in the center circle is from Simply Said, covered with a button tied with linen thread (Button Bouquet and Soft Subtles, respectively).

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

This is a card I'll be demonstrating at my SIL's workshop this month. My group leader, Christy Harsch, showed us how to make this adorable spider using punches, and I had to try it! She credited them to Lindsay Mahon, but I don't know where the idea originated.

The spider is two Basic Black scallop circles with some photo corner "legs" adhered between them. These legs are Basic Black layered with Old Olive. The eyes are 1/2" Whisper White Circles with 1/4" Basic Black circles, and the nose is a 1/4" Pretty in Pink circle. The "web" is a piece of 1/4" Basic Black grosgrain ribbon.

For the card, I used Tangerine Tango as the base, then layered Basic Black and Ghostly Greetings dsp. I tucked the ribbon behind the black layer with some adhesive so the spider could hang out! I did put a dimensional on the back of the spider to keep him in place.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Since I had stamping time this weekend, I was able to plan this month's stamp club cards. Here's what we'll be doing:This first card uses watercolouring with the Harvest Home set. I saw on Splitcoast that someone had embossed the image before colouring it, so we'll be doing that. The image is embossed with black ep. It stands out much better, and the outline doesn't run when you colour it! I used my Aquapainter (which is on sale this month!) to colour using Tangerine Tango, More Mustard, Old Olive and Close to Cocoa ink. The sentiment is stamped in Old Olive, then the picture is layered on Old Olive, Basic Black and Tangerine Tango as the card base. I used some More Mustard ribbon as an accent.

For the second card, I used a combination of techniques. I started with Splitcoast's sketch SC188 with Brocade Blue and Elegant Eggplant (just because I haven't used my Rich Regals for a long time!).

I used Faux Shaving Cream technique for the hearts (which are from Simply Said). I use this technique a lot for stamping letters for my scrapbook layouts, but I haven't used it yet on a card. I like the effect! I also used Masking for the hearts to "layer" them across one another. I used direct-to-paper to add some Elegant Eggplant ink around the edge of the white cardstock before completing the card.For this final project, I have to thank Alex for the inspiration. She posted her Pumpkin Poop treats awhile back, and I laughed so hard I had to CASE her! I used her poem that she found online and added it as a topper to some pre-packaged candy corn that I found at Wal-Mart. Then I made a diaper fold pouch using Ghostly Greetings designer series paper and tucked the candy in there (I'll have some Haiku paper available for those ladies who don't do Halloween). Finally, I used the small pumpkin and pumpkin faces Sizzlets dies to make the pumpkin, and I attached it to the pouch with a dimensional.

So that's what we'll be making this month! I hope everyone enjoys them!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Well, in my busyness, I didn't notice that the counter turned over 30 000 hits! I'm so flattered that people even bother to come and look at my blog! So to thank you for your amazing loyalty and for visiting (even if this is your first visit!), I'm offering some Halloween blog candy.

And for a chance to win this candy, since it's October, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling me what your favourite Halloween memory is.

My favourite memory is a conglomerate of years. My sister and I always had to wear snow pants under our costumes because it always snowed before Halloween, and we only had two big costumes that fit over snow pants - a cat and a clown. We always argued over who got to be the cat because neither of us wanted to be the clown! (We had different costumes that we wore to school, but for trick-or-treating we had to wear the cat and clown!)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Is anyone else thinking, "Where did September go"? I honestly have not had any time to stamp for the past two weeks. Fortunately, my wonderful husband gave me a day off today, so I spent it in my basement/craft room stamping away! I actually managed to get my October clubs planned (yay!), as well as get in a little bit of "just for fun" stamping.I'm going to spread out my posts of what I made today over the next several days because I don't know when I'll get a chance to stamp again!

This is a card I made using Splitcoast's SC188 (I know that was several challenges ago, but as I've said, I'm behind!).

I used Riding Hood Red as the card base, then added some Ski Slope dsp (LOVE this) and Baja Breeze. The image is from Snow Swirled, stamped in Riding Hood Red on Whisper White. I wrapped some 5/8" striped grosgrain around it, then put a pearl bead from my Pretties kit at the top of the tree and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the snowflakes in the tree.

Alex let me know about the Coconut Scrap Shop's Fall Frenzy, and I was really hoping to be able to participate in it, but I don't think I'll be able to. But make sure you check it out (it ends October 6)! They have lots of great challenges. Thanks for keeping me posted, Alex!

Friday, October 3, 2008

We made these adorable bookmarks at our large group (WeCanStamp) Fall Convention, and I believe they were demonstrated at Stampin' Up!'s Convention this summer, so I'm afraid I don't know who originally thought of the idea, but I think they're just adorable, so I'm CASEing away!

They are made with the scallop square chipboard piece from On Board Essentials. I think they're pretty straight-forward. We used sticky strip on the back to hold the ribbon in place, and there is a square piece of cardstock adhered over the ribbon on the back to hide it. The flower is stamped from Eastern Blooms and has a Filigree designer brad piece in the center, held on with a glue dot.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

At our last big downline meeting, one of the demonstrators (I'm afraid I can't remember her name, but she's awesome!) showed us how to use Stampin' Up! products to make jewelry. I was astonished when she showed us how to use brads to make bracelets, necklaces and earrings!

So of course, I had to try it! I went to Michael's and bought the jump rings and clasps (you get hundreds of them for cheap!), and I set to work. Here is a bracelet I made using the square Ice Rhinestone brads.ETA: To make this bracelet, I just slid a jump ring onto one of the tines of a brad, then bent it up and around (I used the pliers in my crafter's tool kit for this). Then I slid a ring onto the other tine of the brad and bent it around so the ring would not slide off. Then I alternated rings and brads until it was long enough to make a bracelet. To finish it off, I added a clasp (I bought these at Michael's too) so that the bracelet would close. I hope this makes sense! I'll show some close-up photos on my next post! She also showed us how to use rub-ons to decorate pre-made jewelry. I found this necklace and earring set at the dollar store, and I added some Chateau Bella rub-ons to them both. I then traced the paper that the jewelry came on onto some Chocolate Chip cardstock and cut it out. I punched holes in it for the earrings, and then I added some rub-ons to it. And voila! Thanks for reading. I've been super-busy this month (seems to be my life story now!), but I do plan to post more often now that all the Fall activities have begun!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Hello again! It's been a busy week so far, as I'm sure it has been for all of you with kids in school! My oldest son started preschool this week, so it's been a big change for me. I can't believe he's already in school (I posted a picture of him below!). Then tonight I have a meeting for AWANA - I'm going to be the preschool (Cubbies) director this year, so that should keep me busy!

Here's the layout that my Scrapbook Club will be doing this week. It's our final meeting for this club, and I'm really going to miss seeing these ladies each month! We're doing a Fall layout. Some ladies wanted Halloween and some wanted Thanksgiving, so they get to choose between the following two (it's the same layout, just different colours and papers). And of course, some ladies opted to do both!

For this Halloween layout, I used the Ghostly Greeting designer paper (isn't it fun!) as the colour palette. The pages are Pumpkin Pie with Basic Black and Old Olive (should be Kiwi Kiss, but I don't have enough of that yet - Old Olive works too!). I stamped the letters with the Taffy Alphabet and rolled the Haunting jumbo wheel along the bottom, both in Basic Black. The pumpkins are made using the Sizzix die cut Pumpkin #4 (I love this!). I made the journaling tags with the tag corner punch and put some jumbo eyelets through them with Basic Black grosgrain.

For the Thanksgiving/Fall page, I used the Haiku designer series paper with So Saffron as the page base. I layered Close to Cocoa and Old Olive. The letters are stamped with Lovely Letters in Close to Cocoa, and I used the Fall Harvest wheel for the pumpkins with Chocolate Chip ink. I coloured in the pumpkins with my blender pens using Tangerine Tango and Old Olive ink. For these tags, I used copper eyelets and hemp twine.And finally, here's a photo of my little guy on his first ever day of school! He was so excited, he hardly slept the night before. He's wearing his new Cars backpack, lunch kit and socks! He had a great time. I got to be the parent helper on the first day, and his teacher is amazing.